Aromanian activist’s appeals trial postponed

(GHM/IFEX) – On 3 July 2001, the First Appeals Court of Athens postponed the hearing of Sotiris Bletsas’ case until 19 September. On 2 February, Bletsas, a member of the Society for Aromanian (Vlach) Culture, was sentenced to fifteen months in prison and fined 500,000 drs. (approx. US$1,400) for dissemination of false information (under Article […]

(GHM/IFEX) – On 3 July 2001, the First Appeals Court of Athens postponed the hearing of Sotiris Bletsas’ case until 19 September. On 2 February, Bletsas, a member of the Society for Aromanian (Vlach) Culture, was sentenced to fifteen months in prison and fined 500,000 drs. (approx. US$1,400) for dissemination of false information (under Article 191 of the penal code).

The postponement was decided by the Court because of the absence of all three prosecution witnesses, nationalist deputy Eugene Haitidis (New Democracy), who had pressed charges, and two Vlach personalities. The defence insisted that the trial be held, as is possible in Greece, with the absent witnesses’ testimonies in the previous trial read to the court. One reason presented by the defence was that a representative of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL), Domenico Morelli from Italy, as well as party representatives from PASOK, Coalition and Renewal Modernizing Movement (Coalition-splinter party) were present to testify for the defence. Another general reason is that Greece is in violation of the right to a fair trial (Art. 6, para. 1 of the European Convention of Human Rights), as the charges against Bletsas were first brought in 1995. Present in the court were observers of GHM, Minority Rights Group – Greece, Home of Macedonian Civilization, and Rainbow Political Organization of the Macedonian Minority in Greece, who, along with Society for Aromanian (Vlach) Culture, had invited the EBLUL representative.

The charges were based on Bletsas’ distribution of a publication of the European Union’s (EU) semi-official EBLUL (in which Bletsas was the Greek “observer”) at an Aromanian festival in July 1995. The document made mention of minority languages in Greece (Aromanian, Arvanite, Macedonian, Pomak, Turkish) and those in other EU member states. His prosecution was triggered by charges pressed by conservative New Democracy Deputy Eugene Haitidis. According to Bletsas, the prosecution’s witnesses included the Aromanian mayor of Prosotsani (northern Greece). The latter considered the reference to the Vlach language as a minority language defamatory to the Vlachs. Bletsas appealed the sentence and was set free pending the appeal.

GHM considers the verdict to be obscurantist and a flagrant violation of freedom of expression. After the conviction, there was an international outcry, following a campaign launched by GHM, which led inter alia to two questions being tabled in the European Parliament. The first question was asked by two members of the European Parliament’s Green/Free Alliance group. Welsh MEP, Eurig Wyn, and Basque MEP, Gorka Knörr Borràs, asked the Commission if it considered that the sentence was “compatible with European values of freedom of expression and opinion and of cultural and linguistic diversity.” On 4 May, Commissioner Reding answered that: “The Commission considers this topic of high importance and follows it carefully. At this stage, the Commission is not able though to answer properly. That’s why the Commission has asked the Greek government to provide a copy of the sentence as soon as it will be ready and any other information related to this matter.”

It is widely believed that the swift setting of an appeals trial date in the court’s summer session was a reaction by the Greek state to the international outcry, and GHM had hoped that the charges would be dropped by the Appeals Court. However, the court’s presiding judge said that one of the witnesses for the prosecution was not properly summoned; and he claimed that this, combined with the MP’s reasons for not being present (“social obligations”), made postponement mandatory. GHM believes that the Greek state must investigate the improper summons which contributed crucially to the postponement, as well as the necessity of the postponement itself.

Finally, a week before the trial, the Society for Aromanian (Vlach) Culture distributed a press release dated 10 March, in which it makes clear that Aromanians have “a national conscience, a specificity as a people that speaks its own language, different from that of the other Balkan peoples, [which] has survived for two millenaries.” GHM considers that Greece should respect the right of some Aromanians to feel they are a separate people and to want their language taught and preserved. Just as it respects -and in fact promotes- the right of other Aromanians to feel that they are part of the Greek nation and that their “idiom” (as they call their language) need not be taught and may die out with time. Both options emanate from the right to self-identification, which is only respected in Greece in the second case. Naturally, programmes aimed at the preservation and development of Aromanian in Greece should not be impeded, but on the contrary encouraged, at least as long as there is sufficient demand for them.

Background Information

Recommended Action

Appeals To

George Papandreou

Foreign Minister

Athens, Greece

Fax: +30 1 36 81 433

E-mail: gpap@mfa.gr
Dimitris Reppas

Minister of Press and Information

Athens, Greece

Fax: +30 1 36 06 969
Professor Mihalis Stathopoulos

Minister of Justice

Athens, Greece

Fax : +30 1 77 55 835
Romano Prodi

President of EU Commission

E-mail: sg-info@cec.eu.int
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.